We are pleased to send to you several articles that summarize the key stories we reported and analyzed last week. These are written articles containing key excerpts of the reporting and analysis we did on last week's episodes of SYSTEM UPDATE.
—Glenn Greenwald
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23 - SYSTEM UPDATE 168
Sen. Klobuchar Pressures Amazon to Blacklist Rumble/Substack; Censorship Demands on Israel/Gaza Escalate; Glenn Reacts to Explosive Report: Brazil’s CIA Illegally Tapped His Phone
US Officials Escalate Censorship Regime by Pressuring Amazon to blacklist Rumble/Substack; Israel critics face “canceling” by long-standing “cancel culture” opponents; Brazilian newspaper “O Globo” reports that ABIN illegally Spied on Glenn and his husband.
We have long-documented that a weapon that is central to the entire Democratic Party – one they have repeatedly defended and demanded the expansion of – is the power to force social media companies to censor political speech in accordance with the agenda of Democrats. They have made no secret of their commitment to this censorship power; they frequently boast of it, publicly threaten Big Tech executives with legal and regulatory reprisals for failure to obey, and now explicitly defend the CIA, FBI and DHS as noble for their parallel attempts to coerce tech companies to censor political speech they dislike or find threatening.
Just two months ago, an appellate court ruled that the Biden White House and the FBI – by coercing, threatening and effectively forcing Big Tech platforms to censor for them – had committed one of the gravest and most drastic attacks on the First Amendment's free speech guarantee in the nation's history. Yet that scathing ruling has evidently not deterred Congressional Democrats in the slightest from pursuing these coercive censorship schemes.
Late last week, Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar and Democratic Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York wrote a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos that argued that free speech sites are spreading "disinformation" – it's like the liberal mad lib to fill in their pro-censorship template – and strongly implied that they want those sites banned from all Amazon services. The entire letter rests on a Washington Post article which – citing self-proclaimed disinformation experts – claimed Rumble and Substack specifically - which are known for refusing to censor dissidents and critics of liberal orthodoxy – are too permissive of free speech to allow the internet to be safe.
As always, we yet again find the component arms of the industrial-censorship regime: so-called "disinformation experts" funded by the same handful of neoliberal billionaires and intelligence agencies accusing free speech sites of allowing dangerous speech; liberal corporate media outlets like the WashPost amplifying that as true; and then Democratic politicians seizing on it to demand censorship of their political enemies. That they continue not only to do this but celebrate themselves for it – even after this court ruling – shows how lawless and fanatical they are when it comes to suppressing dissent to their propaganda.
Over the last two weeks, we have documented on several occasions the disturbing and even unprecedented attempts to abuse the force of law to ban dissent from the policies of Joe Biden and EU states when it comes to the war between Israel and Gaza. Countries like France have imposed a nationwide ban on pro-Palestinian protests - even while protests that align with france's policies – namely, pro-Israel protest – are fully permissible. Campaigns that seek to ensure the firing of any critics of Israel - which resemble almost completely the so-called "cancel culture" campaigns long criticized by the right – have become commonplace, often cheered on by the very people who spent years denouncing them. As this war grinds on, these censorship and cancellation campaigns are dangerously increasing, not diminishing, and we'll tell you about the latest.
A new and quite explosive report in Brazil revealed that – for the years 2019-2021 – Brazil's domestic spying agency, called ABIN, was illegally spying against both myself and my husband, David Miranda, who at the time was a member of Congress opposed to the Bolsonaro government. The revelation, based on leaks from the Federal Police – have dominated headlines here for obvious reasons – it would be as if we learned that the FBI and CIA were illegally spying on the phones and emails of anti-Biden journalists or members of the House Republican Caucus, and I'll share some thoughts about this new report and what is reveals about secret state powers generally, and the dangers of domestic spying specifically.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24 - SYSTEM UPDATE 169
Back to 2002: Israel Dissent Cast As “Pro-Terrorist,” While Mass Firing Campaigns Consume These Israel Critics
As the U.S. government continues to unreservedly support Israel in the current war with Gaza, Americans critics of the war face chilling consequences for their speech.
In mid-2016, the Clinton campaign released its first campaign ad – complete with sinister music, shadowy images and a deep baritone voice full of innuendo – implying that Donald Trump harbored disloyalties and a secret allegiance to Moscow. I assumed, wrongly as it turns out, that most Americans would recoil from such a familiar and discredited script – copied, as it so obviously was, from the most extreme witch hunts that came to define the McCarthy era.
The same thing happened when Russia invaded Ukraine, and I assumed that Americans would instantly recognize that they were being subjected to the same template of war propaganda that has induced them to support so many wars over the last several decades: moralizing fairy tales about how the US is merely a benevolent power which – once again – is involving itself in a pure for purely selfless reasons, simply attempting to defend democracy from the dark, malevolent forces of despotism.
That this was the same script that induce Americans to support an invasion of Iraq, and that war advocates in the media insisted that the US fights wars to spread democracy – even as our government openly funds and arms the world's most repressive tyrannies — meant, I assumed, that Americnas would not fall this time for this same primitive and tawdry propaganda.
But the reason I was wrong in both instances is because I overestimated the extent to which we remember and take with us the lessons from history. The raw, visceral and intense emotions that are triggered by every new war is no match for rationality-based attempts to point out that we are being subjected to the same exact scripts, sometimes verbatim, and often authored by the very same people selling them now.I continue to be amazed at the extent to which the repressive and dissent-crushing climate of 2002 prevails with regards to this new war in Israel and the attempt to ensure that the US treats this war as our own. In many ways, the space for dissent, the tolerance for questions, in the wake of the October 7 attack on a foreign country is even more rigid and more constrained than it was in after the 2001 attack on our own country.
Over the past two weeks, so many Americans have been fired or suffered other reprisals for views expressed on social media that run counter to the prevailing war orthodoxies - and by that I don't mean people fired for expressing support for Hamas, but rather criticizing the Israeli government or its military response in Gaza and Joe Biden's support for it. Anyone watching what is happening would – as intended – be naturally afraid to express any dissent for fear that it will be their head on the next pike.
The 2001-mimicking rhetoric and rationale invoked to justify what Israel is doing, and to ensure that our own government be as involved as possible, is coming so fast and furious that it is almost impossible to keep up. But, given what is at stake in this new, horrifically brutal, and very dangerous new war, we're going to try. When you gather in one place how many Americans have had their lives turned upside down for expressing dissent, and how similar are the arguments spewed by the more-unified-than-ever political and media class at those raising objections, it is genuinely astonishing.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25 - SYSTEM UPDATE 170
The House (Finally) Has a Speaker: Mike Johnson; United Nations vs. Israel; Establishment Exploits War for Massive Power Grab
Congressman Mike Johnson is elected Speaker—What do we know about this relatively obscure representative from Louisiana? Plus: Israel denies visas to U.N. officials after Secretary General Antonio Guterres spoke on the conflict.
The House of Representatives today elected a new Speaker of the House, the nation's 56th Speaker. He's Republican Congressman Mike Johnson of Louisiana, and he may be one of the least well-known members of Congress to be elected to the Speakership in years – which is already a point in his favor, given the utter failure that has come from electing those deemed next in line, those who have squirmed their way up the establishment latter, all of whom – by definition – tend to be craven partisan hacks, who have mastered the art of backroom deals and horse trading so thoroughly that there's rarely anything left besides that.
Back in July, we interviewed Congressman – now House Speaker – Johnson after he had spent the day grilling FBI Director Christopher Wray about the role the FBI had played in pressuring Big Tech to censor the internet. Both from that hearing and his interview, I walked away – as I said at the time – quite impressed. A constitutional lawyer by training, Johnson's harsh critiques and relentless questioning of the FBI Director were very well-informed, very clever, and clearly based in genuine convictions about the massive abuses of power perpetrated by the US Security State.
But – it goes without saying – there is a lot more to being Speaker than just being able to flourish on a handful of issues. He has just become the most powerful person in the Congress, the third in line to the presidency. And so what Mike Johnson thinks about matters of war and peace – especially now – is of the utmost importance, as are his views on the role of government and the US Security State generally. We'll tell you what we know and what can be gleaned from his history.
The war between Israel and Gaza – waged almost entirely in Gaza – continues to escalate, and in its wake, it seems to be unleashing and spreading intense hatred and vitriol of the kind we have not really seen for quite some time. Far away from Israel, in virtually every country in the West – but most definitely in the US – intense passions, anger and rage are driving not only the debate over Israel and Gaza but also provoking all new debates about what the limits of free speech are. This vitriol spilled over today in a very unusual way at the United Nations, where Israel announced that it will refuse to grant visa to UN officials after Israel reacted with rage over a speech by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres which included some extremely mild and indirect criticisms of that country. We'll report on this conflict and the consequences.
Even though the United States was not attacked by Hamas, it calls for the Federal Government – including the FBI and Justice Department – to wield more power in the name of fighting Hamas and the sentiments driving it continue to grow. Yesterday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ordered the University of South Florida to immediately ban the campus group "Students for Justice in Palestine,” alleging that it is providing material support for terrorism. All of this is very redolent of what happened after 9/11 – with the very obvious and vital difference being that our own country, the United States, was attacked 22 years ago, but this time it was not. Back then, as now, barely a day went by when prominent political and media figures argued for new powers to be vested in the US Security State in the name of stopping terrorism. As we demonstrated on our Friday night special episode about the post-9/11 abuses, those new powers rarely did anything to stop terrorism, but were invariably abused. Especially after 20 years of vesting the US Security State with more and more power in the name of stopping terrorism, we should be very wary of those who are exploiting this new war – that isn't even ours – to argue for still greater expansions.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
WATCH THE EPISODE:
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26 - SYSTEM UPDATE 171
As Politicians Demand Still-More Israel Censorship, Conservatives Abandoned Free Speech, w/ Brad Polumbo; PLUS: Lee Fang Asks: Is Biblical Prophecy a Key Reason for GOP Israel Support?
Pro-Israel politicians demand censorship powers against pro-Palestinian voices; Brad Palumbo on the jarring abandonment of free speech values by many conservatives; Lee Fang on whether American support for Israel is rooted in Evangelical eschatology.
Every day that we get further away from the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, we have more and more American politicians demanding new and formal censorship programs against critics of Israel. One of the most destructive mistakes made after 9/11 is that we allowed political leaders to convince us that we had to relinquish long-standing political rights in order to be safe. It was that trade-off which led to authoritarian infringements like the Patriot Act and mass warrantless NSA domestic spying. As we have seen over and over throughout history, once you put a population into sufficient levels of fear, then they will be not only willing – but eager – to give up core liberties in exchange for promises to be kept safe.
That is exactly what numerous American politicians are doing now. Led by GOP presidential candidates who are desperate to find a way to save their flailing campaigns – people like Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Tim Scott – calls for more censorship and greater restrictions of free speech are coming on a virtually daily basis. Yesterday, the nation's most steadfast, principled and nonpartisan free speech group – the Foundation for Individual Rights and freedom – known as FIRE – issued a scathing criticism of DeSantis after the Florida Governor ordered the University of South Florida to immediately ban a pro-Palestinian student group by claiming that they are providing material support to Hamas. FIRE – which has gained significant support from the American right for the years of defending the speech rights of conservatives on college campuses - lambasted DeSantis' order as blatantly unconstitutional in violation of the First Amendment – which it is – and urged the University President not to comply.
Meanwhile, Nikki Haley today – last seen threatening Iran with a US attack and pronouncing that this is not only Israel's war but our war – vowed, as her first act of president, to impose new censorship powers against what she called "anti-Semitism" - meaning any questioning of Israeli orthodoxies involving Zionism - that view will no longer be allowed, while Tim Scott today vowed to immediately deport anyone in the US on a visa whose pro-Palsetinian views go too far.
We'll speak with the conservative journalist and commentator Brad Polumbo about these censorship calls from Republican candidates and what it says about the state of free speech in the US and on parts of the American right.
After the killing of George Floyd and the spate of character attacks and firings it quickly fostered, the investigative journalist Lee Fang was one of the first targets of such smears as he was widely vilified in the media as a racist. Lee's crime? He posted an interview with a Black American in which he expressed criticisms of the BLM movement for caring only when black people are murdered by white cops, but not other black people. We'll talk to Lee about how the current movement - in which numerous people have not only been vilified for their pro-Palestinan views but also put on black lists and gotten fired – compares to that moment. We'll also talk to Lee about an extraordinary series of interviews he conducted with passionately pro-Israel members of Congress, in which they described how their religious views – particularly their belief that Israel must be strong to foster the return of Jesus and a Rapture-like event – is a key reason for their legislative support for Israel. We'll examine how significant such religious views are in the strong bipartisan support for Israel.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
WATCH THE EPISODE:
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27 - SYSTEM UPDATE 172
As Growing Attacks on Gaza Increase Risk of Escalation, Free Debate is More Vital Than Ever; Are All Pro-Palestinian Protesters Antisemitic?; PLUS: Matt Taibbi on Latest Censorship Scheme
As Gaza burns and America continues to unconditionally support Israel, dissenting demonstrations in support of Palestine are smeared as antisemitic and pro-Hamas. Plus: Matt Taibbi on the latest DoD censorship scheme and the Israel-Gaza conflict.
It is hard to overstate the death, destruction, and misery being rained down on the 2.2 million people of Gaza. It is quite likely, however, that we are going to be hearing significantly less about exactly what is happening there. That is because the Israelis have ensured that all internet service and other forms of outside communication with Gaza are now almost entirely cut.
All of that comes as Israeli bombardment of Gaza reaches its most intense level yet. And that's saying a lot, given that Israel – in the first week of its war – dropped more bombs on this tiny strip of land than the US dropped on Afghanistan in an entire year. Meanwhile, the US last night bombed Iranian sites in Syria as retaliation for Iranian missile attacks on US troops deployed in Syria - yes, we still have those. The State Department today issued an urgent warning that all American citizens in Lebanon should leave the country immediately, following a prior travel advisory from the State Department that Americans face increased risk of violent attacks on them due to US support for the Israeli war effort. All of this has Biden and his GOP allies in Congress vowing unlimited support for Israel, insisting that they intend to impose no limits on how Israel can bomb Gaza or invade it.
Given the obviously grave consequences of all these developments – ones that are certain to get far worse with an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza – the need for a free debate is more vital than ever. And yet, as we documented last night, calls for censorship – from GOP presidential candidates and countless politicians – continue to skyrocket. This is based in the claim that pro-Palestinian protests are inherently or highly likely to be antisemitic, and that pro-Palesitnian voices are motivated by a hatred for Jews.
We'll speak to the independent journalist Matt Taibbi about a significant new story on the latest scheme to dictate who is and is not a valid source of information, as a means of controlling the flow of political debate and news.
READ THE FULL STORY MONDAY ON LOCALS.
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